What do "attractor dynamics" refer to in the context of social structures?

post by JavierCC (javier-caeiro-canabal) · 2023-03-20T01:39:57.770Z · LW · GW · No comments

This is a question post.

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I've seen the expression being used in some posts to refer to social structures, like in cultish countercultishness from Yudkowsky. 

I have a vague intuition of what the idea is about but I would like to see a formal explanation of it, and where it originated. 

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answer by Measure · 2023-03-20T14:30:20.125Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

The short answer is that it's an analogy to attractors in dynamical systems, where a wide "basin" of initial conditions tend to evolve toward a narrow region of attraction.

↑ comment by JavierCC (javier-caeiro-canabal) · 2023-03-21T14:56:38.585Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It's funny that you say that is "an analogy", because physics is also "an analogy" then, just more precise.

I ask where it originated because I've seen that there's a concept of "cultural attractor" in papers of anthropology and sociology that maps well with this notion, so I thought that there would probably be a direct causal connection between the two instances of the concept (from academic study to LW), but I haven't seen anyone mentioning that nor the expression "cultural attractor" being used.

I initially thought that it was just the local jargon, so I got surprised.

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